I'm Stephen Lessard, winemaker and partner at Whitman Cellars. I have a combined 18 years of winemaking experience both in California and Washington. A graduate of Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California; I began my winemaking career as a freshman student. My first harvest was actually at three little wineries around the:
- Edna Valley-Saucelito Winery making red Zinfandel,
- Chamisal Winery making Bourgundian-style Chardonnay,
- Claiborne and Churchhill Wineries making German style Rieslings.

I then went to work for Chalone at Edna Valley Vineyards as well as Chamisal Winery until earning my degree in food science.

In June 0f 1990, I secured a harvest position at Hacienda Winery in Sonoma where I spent one year making Bordeaux varieties and Pinot Noir from the Carneros area.

After Hacienda, I went to work at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa as an enologist (wine chemist). Stag’s Leap was a great opportunity to work along side some great rising talent including:

• Francoise Pechon - winemaker for Araujo,
• Kimberlee Nichols - winemaker for Markham,
• Ricardo Herrera - assistant winemaker for Screaming Eagle,
• Rolando Herrera - director of winery operations for Paul Hobbs,
• and, of course, Warren Winiarski, owner of Stag’s Leap.

In 1996 I made the big jump to Washington state accepting the position of associate winemaker at Hedges Cellars. Within 6 months, I took over as head winemaker and never looked back. Hedges was a great opportunity to fine tune my winemaking style, and over the course of my 6 years, I have produced some critically acclaimed wines.

In 2002 I made the move to Walla Walla (the “town so nice they named it twice”) and took over all production operations (including production design of our new winery) and vineyard sourcing for Whitman Cellars.

My Philosophy
The most important word used in describing my wines is balance. A wine reflects balance in a similar way to a vineyard or I should say-its fruit reflects its terroir. It’s an all encompassing word in which the character of the varietal, the vineyard terroir, the structure of the wine, the chemistry of the wine and the oak integration all harmonize together to produce a wine of seamless depth and interest.
My methodology to support my philosophy is a blend (pun intended) of:

• Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars methods for production of their famous Cask 23 blend,
• combined techniques I learned in Bordeaux while researching the first growths,
• and the multitude of techniques I learned throughout my career.